


Do We Have Time?

by LogicalAlo



Category: Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:40:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26742277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LogicalAlo/pseuds/LogicalAlo
Summary: Is it a simple visit to Gray's apartment to ask him on another adventure or more than that? With nervous looks, frantic searching, and tensed facial expression, there is more than meets the eye and Gray wants to understand. Carmen just wants to keep him safe and oblivious to the past; it's for the best.
Relationships: Carmen Sandiego | Black Sheep/Gray | Crackle
Comments: 8
Kudos: 102





	Do We Have Time?

**Author's Note:**

> Just before s3 drops. Hope they new season delivers and I won't lie that I'm high-key anxious 
> 
> P.S. Bad Bunny tracks that inspired/motivated me when writing include Ignorantes, Si Veo Tu Mama, y Solia. Give him a listen, his music is fire. I'll even drop a link to one lol  
> https://youtu.be/f5aDUB1NCnk

“So, what do you say?” she bit her lip awaiting a response from the other end of the call. Carmen supported her phone with her shoulder as she opened a door into a building. Easily navigating inside a building she has never been before, then again a world class thief like her usually doesn’t struggle with directions. The other end of the call was silent before a light cough was heard. 

The person Carmen was talking to, paced around his living room wearing just his black joggers upon receiving a call in the middle of the night. If it were anyone else he would’ve ignored the call, but it was the Red Sneakeroo. He was half awake when he took the call with his voice still husky from being woken up. He was half understanding what she was saying, something about going somewhere, but he was sure he missed where and when. He heard the noise of an elevator from her end. He couldn’t keep her waiting, so he gave her an answer.

“Sure, but-” a doorbell rang and he paused mid sentence, “Sorry, Carmen, Give me a second to see who it is.” 

He heaved a sign wondering who it was this late at night. He placed his cellphone down on the coffee table and groggily moving his hand toward his wavy brown hair to make it somewhat presentable. He didn’t have time to run to the bathroom and apply his favorite matte clay product to make it stand. 

“Coming….fuck” he hit his leg on the side of the couch trying to make his way to the door. Whoever was at the door better have a good reason.

Carmen on the other hand waited with two coffee cups, amazing how much Starbucks monopolizes the coffee industry she absently thought to herself. She heard some shuffling and the creak of the door opening. Her grin widened when she saw Gray raise his eyebrows. She lightly laughed at his reaction. He blinked a bit before he began to close the door which sent Carmen to immediately jab her foot to avoid the door closing.

“Wait, it’s me!”

“Carmen?” he once more opened the door apologizing for his slow reaction. Carmen told him not to worry and laughed it off. 

“You sounded pretty tired on the phone, you should’ve been honest when I asked if I woke you up,” jeered Carmen playfully. 

“And miss talking to you? I don’t think so. You aren’t exactly the easiest person to get a hold of, you know,” he countered. 

“You have no idea,” that’s what Carmen planned to say, but ended up mumbling when she realized Gray was shirtless. Had he always been this toned? Would he let her touch him to see how firm they are? Her eyes continued to linger at his shirtless body. He sported some scars that she assumed were from a past mission during his time with V.I.L.E. as she was sure his current occupation wouldn’t lead to scars like the ones he had. Her gaze kept lowering until she saw the hem of his joggers, feeling her face go red, she turned her attention elsewhere to avoid her imagination going adrift. 

“I hope you find it to your liking,” he still had the husky voice making her go redder unable to find a snappy response, so instead she shoved the coffee she had bought for him at him. Seeing her like that made Gray want to keep teasing her more, but her face was already red as the outfit she had seen her wear before, so instead he took the coffee placing it on the kitchen table with a thanks and retreated to his room to grab a simple white tee. 

“Carmen get a hold of yourself,” she silently scolded herself, yes Gray did grow to be even handsomer. She grabbed her phone still perched on her shoulder with her free arm and checked the time. 

It read ‘1: 25’.

Her eyebrows knitted when she looked at the time, it wasn’t good nor could she ask Player to reschedule, he was currently taking tests both Monday and Tuesday for school. Clearing her throat and also placing her coffee cup on the table she began to move toward the hall to shout at Gray.

“We don’t have much time, put on some shoes. Oh passport and wallet!” she moved around the small apartment checking that everything was off in his house and began to lock the windows. She approached the window above the kitchen sink, smoothly sliding the window down, but not before frowning at two figures afar. They needed to move faster.

Gray wore a quizzical look as he stepped back into the living room with Carmen throwing his apartment keys at him along with a gray hoodie he had on the couch. 

“Wait, when you called me you meant now?” he inquired, but was meant with no responses as Carmen reached for his hand pulling him out of the apartment with the door already locked from the inside. 

“Yep, our flight to San Diego leaves in 30 minutes. I got a cab waiting for us and it will probably take us about 15 minutes to reach Sydney airport,” she disclosed the information and tightened her grip on his hand as they jogged down the stairs. She was thankfully Gray lived only on the 2nd floor. They have to leave, he had to leave Sydney because of her. 

Gray didn’t know how to take the information, San Diego on a short notice. She must have her reason, but what for? Some other charity work or a rescue such as last time. Either way, Carmen was always sort of an enigma figure to him. He could see her eyebrows knitted and bags barely hidden by her foundation. Something was certainly up. Perhaps he could ask her on the flight since it would be sitting down for about 17 hours and who knows how many stops. 

They were in the taxi now with Carmen impatiently tapping her foot. Gray glanced to see her tensed face, was it that they were running late or something else? He reached out for her hand and held it hearing the tapping noise cease. He turned his head forward, absently looking ahead ready to sprint once the cab arrived. 

“No, it’s all good,” Gray handles tipping the taxi while Carmen skimmed through her phone to have the tickets ready to scan inside. TSA should be a breeze with them not having much. Gray approached Carmen and they both briskly walked inside. The red theft occasionally would look around her, hoping those figures she saw wouldn’t realize where they were at.

Once inside, they quickly scanned the tickets leaving them with 12 minutes before boarding. Gary could help, but yawn multiple times leaving Carmen feel bad about waking him up. Although, him being sleep deprived was 10 times preferred over the worst case scenario in Carmen’s mind. Then again, if he just drank the coffee-

“Dammit, I forgot the coffees,” Carmen burst out earning some annoyed looks from other folks. 

“Don’t worry, I’m pretty awake now with all this,” Gray gave a light hearted grin toward the expert thief. He was good at executing his lies, but his body said otherwise thought Carmen as she smiled back. 

She smiled at his comment, a rather forced one with her tired eyes twitching a bit. Gray felt his throat go dry, something was up. Carmen was unusually nervous almost like that night at New Zealand with those fearful looks she gave when she asked him if the voice and area reminded him of anything or when he picked up that electricity rod. 

“Carmen,”

“Yea, Graham,” no Gray today either, he thought.

“Nevermind,”he deadpanned. Carmen simply nodded moving her bangs aside as she discreetly continued to look around. 

“Next,” croaked a tired voice. They began to remove their shoes and items requested, placing them inside the bin, followed by stepping inside a scanner one at a time. Upon approval from the TSA, they made their way to the boarding area, speed walking to make it in time.

The strum of a guitar was heard on the airport speakers followed by an announcement “All passengers boarding Cloud Airlines with destination to San Diego please report to gate 08, I repeat please report to gate 08 with destination to San Diego boarding Cloud Airlines.”

“Let’s go,” once more she grabbed a hold of his hand, but this time much harsher and rushed them to the entrance to board. Carmen's eyes looked a bit frantic when she looked over Gray’s shoulder who was walking close behind her. The flight attendant directed them toward their seat. Carmen bought out the first class, just wanting it to be the two of them seated for her own reason. 

It wasn’t until they sat down, that she visibly relaxed. Gray stood up to remove his hoodie before sitting down next to Carmen’s window seat. Gray took a deep breath unsure how to ask her, afraid it would cause her to tense more, but it couldn’t go on like this. He would await for the plane to be on air before asking her. More passengers shuffled in and Carmen would engage in small talk with Gray about how his job had been going. Gray answered that it was going well. 

The flight attendant did her routine of instructing passengers about safety procedures, pilot thanking them and informing them about the take off, and they were finally on the air.

Here goes nothing.

“Carmen,”

“Yes,” she turned her head to face him.

“Are we running away from someone?” 

Carmen froze of course he wasn’t stupid. She grimaced looking down at her own Converse, for being one of the best thieves around, she did a poor job here. Her eyes flickered to the window looking at the city becoming smaller and smaller. When she initially arrived at his place she was sure she had everything under control. It must have been when she spotted both Tigress and Mime Bomb outside of Gray’s window she panicked thinking they might’ve figured out that Player implemented the wrong address in V.I.L.E’s files. 

She just nodded her head and licked her dry lips.

“Is it that same group from last time?” he asked referring to the incident in New Zealand leaning forward whispering only for her to hear.

A haunted expression passed Carmen’s eyes brimming with unshed tears. Her fingers playing with the hem of her jacket. 

“They are,” he might've expected a longer answer by the way his mouth slightly turned downwards in disappointment, but that was all she would be saying. She crossed her legs on the seat hoping it was the end of the discussion until they reached San Diego. 

Gray wasn’t thrilled at her response, it did answer his question but he wished she was more open with him. Why would the same organization be after her? And why did she need to haul him along, if the conflict was between Carmen and V.I.L.E, he was probably deadweight. Unless…

“Did I know them too?” he muttered, not expecting Carmen to respond. He was right, she pretended not to listen as she turned to face the window. However, she said something else.

“Someone special gets a second chance in life. They have their life back, free of malice. And you only bring trouble, one of those troubles that said friend had been unknowingly freed from.” She takes a deep breath that comes out shaky. Gray listens silently to Carmen listening to every word carefully, looking for an answer. She soon turn back to face him, yet avoided his eyes.

“Selfishly, you decide to reconnect with your friend, why?” she somberly scoffed herself remembering when Player had asked her the night she had stood Gray up. The same night, she was able to provide Player with a clear answer to why she wouldn’t meet up with Gray.

“To protect him from V.I.L.E, from those grimy, thieves getting their hands on that friend again. But I didn’t listen, guess that makes me a bad friend,” she joked, “I took you too close, close for them to see that I had involved myself with you, yet again. You are in a vulnerable position because of my own selfishness to see you, to be near you.” 

Carmen didn’t turn to see him, she was afraid of his reaction. Would he be mad at her for not being honest to him, for involving him again, or perhaps detest her for abandoning him back in the day. 

The ex V.I.L.E. agent was quiet in his seat, unsure what to say. V.I.L.E. it was and according to what Carmen said, he had been involved with them in some form. Deep down he wasn’t too surprised remembering how he used to seek the thrill, but stopped when discharged from the hospital that told him he had fallen into a coma. He was the most communicative with his parents, therefore when he had asked them what he had been up to before he fell into an apparent coma, they couldn’t answer much. His mother only stated how he was often complaining about a career stump. 

_ “Coma?! Why weren’t we never notified?!,” his mother sobbed when Gray had called her when he was released and out of the hospital. He didn’t remember where to go, thinking his apartment might've been long gone from being in coma for about a year according to the doctors.  _

_ “Graham, drop your location and we will be there as soon as we can,” instructed his father. They had hung up and Gray waited on the bench outside the hospital. Staring at the cars speeding by and occasional patients walking in and out of the building. What did he do on the job that messed him up so bad. Worst of all, why weren’t his parents notified until now that he called them. He hoped they wouldn’t mention this to his younger siblings.  _

“That explains a lot. I’m assuming this ‘Gray’ was me as well.” Carmen nodded, but still didn’t look at him with her eyes casted down. Gray glanced down to see her hands shaking and instinctively reached out to hold them. He lifted his hand and was surprised to see his own hands trembling. 

Her eyes widen seeing his hand over hers, warmth. She slid one of her hands to place it on top of his. They remained that way for a few seconds, before Gray once more broke the silence.

“I must’ve given into my own desires back then to have involved myself with them. I’m sorry if during that time, I did anything to hurt- no actually, please tell me what happened, all of it and from there I hope I can do anything to seek your forgiveness.” 

“You are already on that path, Gray. Remember New Zealand? Not once did you hesitate in helping me out and had asked me if we were the ‘good guys’ remember?” she began to rub small circles on his hands. 

Weakly he let out a smile, appreciating her small token to comfort him. He was on the right path according to Carmen, but it wasn’t enough. He needed to know what he did, perhaps he seek closure more than anything. Or to be worthy of even being next to Carmen, to be part of her life again.

For now, they would sit next to one another, hand in hand, lost in their own thoughts. But more than anything, finally together again.


End file.
